I never want to see Odio dribble the ball. Or shoot the ball. Damn it.

Look he's the only one who plays D or can jump. For everyone calling for Donahue to get a big, the guys we're looking at have a worse skill-set than Odio. Have fun.

No, I agree with you. I think he has a good high energy guy. Gets the blocks, the dunks, that kind of stuff. Gives the team momentum, that sort of thing. But obviously we don't have the depth to have him at a role like that and he ends up with the ball too much.

As I mentioned after Hanlon missed his 3rd foul shot against The U and posters were tripping over themselves with the 5th moral victory of the season, those close losses very often hurt a team. 3 convincing losses since, I think we've seen how the team has responded.

BTW, I can't think of a worse athletic program from a major conference. FB and BB we are simply not competitive and won't be in either for very possibly the rest of the decade. The incompetence and self-inflicted wounds are astounding.

HJS wrote:As I mentioned after Hanlon missed his 3rd foul shot against The U and posters were tripping over themselves with the 5th moral victory of the season, those close losses very often hurt a team. 3 convincing losses since, I think we've seen how the team has responded.

BTW, I can't think of a worse athletic program from a major conference. FB and BB we are simply not competitive and won't be in either for very possibly the rest of the decade. The incompetence and self-inflicted wounds are astounding.

Your crazy hyperbole about not being competitive for the next 7 years aside, we might be the worst BCS basketball/football combo. WSU and Utah are probably the only competition.

twballgame9 wrote:Ryan Anderson is by far the most talented player on the court tonight. If BC could recruit a player over 6'5';, he wouldn't be trying to D guys twice his size.

Oh, and Odio is a hustler and can jump but he has no discernable basketball skill whatsoever.

BC has two good players in Hanlan and Anderson. The rest are either just transferred (Dragevich), too injured to be productive (Clifford, Rahon) or should be playing in America East or the NESCAC. Jackson is horribly inconsistent. The coach allows the team to argue on the court and shows no heart at all with the refs.

Having 2.whatever healthy ACC players is a recipe for disaster. I still have no faith that everyone healthy plus a couple recruits will fix this. All the kids Don is recruiting are projects in one way or another.

gaelfu wrote:Are you saying the team is worse than last year's team? I think that's a stretch.

In any case, doesn't really matter, as I am predicting Donahue is not the coach for the 2015-16 season, and not because he leaves for a better job. Failure by a little or failure by a lot is still failure nonetheless.

I can never tell how much of this you watch as you came in earlier in the season and didn't comment for a few games, but while maybe I'm blinded by what I want to see happen, it has seemed very clear to me that this team was exponentially better than last year when they were running the limited bench and often looked like it was more talented than Wake, Maryland, Va Tech and even NC State but they only go about 4 and a percentage deep. Way too much depends on Clifford's health right now and if he can't play significant minutes I guess your earlier 18-20 game prediction seems right to me. If he can I think this has the potential to be a very good team with two more decent players preferably a big and a swing type.

I've watched about 75% of the games this year, and most of all of the ACC games except for UVA. The team is better than last year's team. Anyone who's watched them play this year will agree with that.

That said, let's look at the core of this team right now: Anderson, Hanlan, Rahon, Jackson, Clifford. Say what you want about the others, but I think the others are fringe ACC players at best.

Anderson - I thought at the beginning of the year he was primed for a monster year. Really thought he could be the next Dudley for this program, same body type, same skill set, round out the 3ball as an upperclassman and turn into an ACC POY candidate. Statistically, at 16 and 9, he's lived up to expectations. I don't understand the inconsistency though. He seems to just disappear in certain games. But, he is the furthest thing from what's wrong with the team, and I'll say he's on schedule to develop into that player.

Rahon - Loved him at the beginning of the year, but the more I see him play, the lower I think his ceiling is. Think for a deep tourney run kind of team, he is a solid 7th man/glue guy. Have seen him miss way too many open shots this year. Maybe it's the ankle, but I see him as a nice bench piece, and not a starting 2 guard for a team making a deep tourney run. Smart defender and has taken a lot of charges, but I question his ability to effectively defend for 40 minutes (depth is an issue here to be fair).

Hanlan - Think he's a bulldog. Really tough, love his ability to attack the basket. Another guy who I worry about his shooting from deep, but overall happy with him. He'll need to take a massive leap for this team to have a shot at making the tourney next year.

Jackson - Has proven me wrong in that he's bounced back from an awful start. Ultimately, I think another 6th/7th man on a good team however, because he's a one-dimensional player. Doesn't bring anything to the table off the bounce, and is a minus defender. Great shooter though, and a guy I'd like to have coming off the bench to heat up and lead the 2nd unit.

Clifford - This is where we probably most disagree. A huge question mark in my eyes. For all the shit CAG has been getting, I don't know how we can think we can depend on him when you consider how prone to chronic injury big men can be, especially with the knees. I don't think he's a particularly good rebounder for his size, and another thing I'll say is that he doesn't strike me as a particularly intelligent player. I will say that he shows nice touch on his J, but his post moves are a work in progress, and after 2 years, he's just a big ? to me.

So we finally come to Donahue. In year 3, what has he done with the foundation? We have one good to potentially great player in Anderson. We have potential, but ultimately question marks, all over the floor everywhere else. We have a team devoid (for the most part) of consistent outside shooters in a system that demands them. Inconsistency and stretches of downright putrid play characterize our team's defense. We have significant depth issues in both the frontcourt and the backcourt, with only one swingman signed for next year. We might sign more players, but who knows? We have walk-ons playing meaningful minutes night after night.

Most importantly, I get the feeling that this team's ceiling is far lower than some of the yahoo's on this site would have you believe. One really good player (Anderson), one solid starter (Hanlan) and a few nice role players does not make a tourney team. Donahue said it himself, give this squad 50 games. It's been 50 games. We know what we have. And what we have is a team that's 9-11, 1-6 in conference, and going nowhere fast.

To be fair if youre going by his give me 50 games comment with last year's class, thats already an unmitigated disaster. Two gone (humphrey, daniels). One glued to the bench (Caudill). Two starting (Andersen, Jackson). One "injured" (Clifford). One flier who may be on his 50 game track (odio).

So thats 3 guys who are bust, and two who are wait-and-see. I think even donahue would call bullshit on himself with the 50 game comment. This was a class where we needed an entire team, and we got two guys and two maybes

I know Anderson posts numbers but he is an unmitigated disaster on defense and he absolutely sucks from ten feet and out. He needs to add a reliable offensive game out to twenty feet and he needs to be far more efficient from the line. I understand why we overlook some of his most glaring issues but for he needs to take a huge step forward with shot, mechanics, and consistency going into junior year to pull this program forward with Olivier.

The team is better than last year and is another decent class from competing mid-pack of ACC. The guards are good but still freshmen and that always tends to make matters appear worse with transition defense and offensive inefficiency

Hanlon is not the best player on this team period. The small forward putting up numbers against centers and power forwards is BY FAR the best player on this team. Hanlon and his 26 percent from 3 in ACC play notwithstanding.

"We remind everyone that Boston College fired a perfectly good coach because he went on a job interview, and deserves all of this." Spencer Hall

Donahue's Disciples:Tough game. Really proud of our guys. Hung tough even when the calls weren't goin our way. They gave us one good run and we played them point for point the rest of the way, it just wasn't enough to close the gap. Awesome crowd tonight hope to see more games as packed as tonight's. Up next, Clemson on Saturday! #WeAreBC

Vincent Higgins: When are we going to give don the spaz treatment?

Donahue's Disciples: Never.

Vincent Higgins: Why. Everyone was so quick to be anti spaz. The Don has been as bad a failure.

Donahue's Disciples: Every recruit skinner had left when he did. We even had guys transfer. This may be Donahue's third year, but its only his second year of recruits. We lost 3 starters from last year's team (Gabe, Humphrey, JD), and Cliff has been hurt almost the whole year. Not really Don's fault. He's a great guy and a great coach. The team WILL be good. We already are. Check the ACC games we've lost. Really close games. We will be a top 25 team next year. GUARANTEED.

Vincent Higgins: I agree he is a great guy! So is spaz! But honestly there is a bit of a double standard with the two. The Don had not produced

twballgame9 wrote:Hanlon is not the best player on this team period. The small forward putting up numbers against centers and power forwards is BY FAR the best player on this team. Hanlon and his 26 percent from 3 in ACC play notwithstanding.

Anderson is the best player on this team. Given that he has to play out of position against guys who have enormous size advantages over him, all while not fouling out since he is BC's only consistent scoring option, I can totally understand why he gets frustrated and why his defense suffers. I mean, his matchup agains Alex Len alo e was ridiculous. Not having a fully engaged and mobile Clifford has killed an chance this team had of being successful in the ACC this year.

I don't know what is happening out on the recruiting trail, but if we only bring in the Drag Queen from ND and Jorgenson (and I'm doubtful on him) without getting some size and speed, BCwill suck nex year too.